Scribbled Moments in Time
Posted 16th August 2008 at 8:39pm by M1ke, tagged as Quotes, Random | Commenting Closed
As anyone will know from previous comments involving randomness, exploring and Doctor Who there's little I love more than finding interesting things in the every day world. When I do I try and record them in some way - for those who look at my Flickr you'll have seen some random photos amongst the artistic (get me) ones. An easier and more available way is to write things down - or scribble them in haste. There's very little order to this method though, and I currently have a large pile of notes from years of doing this. So as people were complaining (I feel loved) that I hadn't written anything for what experts are calling a long time, I felt I could share some of these notes. Allowing me to finally bin the papery bastards.
A note written after seeing a sign in college:
Sign when a cleaner was mopping the floor. Had the instructions in English and another language. In English "Wet Floor", in the other language "Pissa"
A quote from an unnamed source:
"I don't mind disabled people, I just don't like to listen to them."
One note has a random email address, and the reminder next to it tells me to ask them if they had sex with one of my friends. Who shall remain nameless for legal reasons.
Some quotes from my friend Helen, which never made it to Facebook:
"I thought I was sobering up, until I put toothpaste on my face"
"You dress American and look American, give me a f**king cookie!"
My room mate last year had the surname Wenkenbach. He knew what bach meant, but not wenken. So his explanation of his name was:
"Wenken-stream"
Which I clearly found funny enough to write down.
On the 26th of April 2006 I apparently wanted to organise a party.
Some more anonymous quotes:
"I want to make a donkey out of pink underwear."
"Liv Tyler looks too much like Steve Tyler to me."
"Penis pumps, £100 and women can use urinals!"
"Don't violate my elephant... does anyone want to have sex with me?"
"Scott is a professional Scotsman" (I think I can guess who said this)
"No nipples is better than bum nipples" (heard in Sheffield Uni)
What kind of people do I hang out with?
I've got "lecturer using an umbrella" written on a post-it and no idea what that means.
On a train I saw the notice "laptops and mobile phones only". What the hell else did they expect people to plug in?
Erm:
"Cowlander - highland cattle fight"
More somtime soon!
Reading Maketh a Full Man
Posted 25th July 2008 at 10:47am by M1ke, tagged as Quotes, Books | Commenting Closed
There was a thread today on Dear Wandy about peoples' favourite books. I ended up writing a rather long post, one which I felt could be shared via the medium of blog. Since, like about 90% of the blogs in the world, I don't update this with actual intelligent posts as often as I should (believe me, I have plenty to say but seem not to) I think adding some book reviews would give me something to write. So I'll focus on each of these five and some of the list at the bottom sometime soon.
Empire series by Raymond E. Feist
A lot of people have cited Magician, or the trilogy it starts as their favourites, and I totally agree with that choice - the books are utterly fantastic. However it was his partnership with Janny Wurts and the wonderful story of Mara of the Acoma, her rise from failing house to one of the most powerful people in Kelewan, that really caught me. I'm not the sappy type, but one of the stories in these books brought me closer to crying than anything else I've read; the detail of the characters and the love for them that the books build up is amazing.
Harry Potter series by Ronald McDonald (aka JK Rowling)
So what they started out as kids books - they certainly didn't end up that way. Harry's adventures were wonderfully timed to correspond with my own schooling, and I actually attended the midnight opening for the final one (it was kind of out of necessity, we were going on holiday at 9am the morning after). The fact that even after reading them all (and every previous one multiple times) I'm still gripped upon my second reading of Deathly Hallows is a testament to the skill with which they're written. I'll always remember in Prisoner of Azkaban I actually ended up with my heart racing as the conclusion of the Quidditch cup was borne out.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
It seems my favourite books are ones that affect me in a physical way - near to tears, racing heart etc. This one simply had me in stitches. Not the usual "stitches" that a critic gives Ben Stiller's latest film, I mean actually in a state of not being able to continue reading because one of the more unsubtle lines punched through. Its immensely clever, delivering most types of humour possible, and probably a few that aren't. If you haven't read it you must have seriously masochistic tendencies.
Dark Empire and Futures series' by Timothy Zahn
Simply a fantastic continuation to the Star Wars series, highly detailed, great plot twists and one of the best "baddies you almost hoped would win" ever created in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn. If you're not interested in Star Wars you probably won't like them, but out of the myriad of books written in that universe these will always stand on a different level.
The Wind on Fire series by William Nicholson
We read the Wind Singer in the second year of high school, the standard way kids read, slowly and with the teacher stopping you all the time. After two weeks of this I got the book out of the library and finished it over the weekend, then read through it once more, followed by its sequels, whilst the rest of the class carried on slow reading it. The best thing about the series is that each book is of a very different type from the last, and you'd hardly link the last and first books without reading the second. Plenty of excitement whilst being easy to read.
Extra mentions for His Dark Materials, The Hobbit (I agree Grrry), Artemis Fowl, To Kill a Mockingbird, I Robot, Adrian Mole, Holes and the Alex Rider series.
Incidentally the quote used as the title for this item is a shortened version of one by Sir Francis Bacon. I know of this quote because it is written over the doors of Kensington Library in Liverpool, which I used to visit with my Granddad. Excitingly I found a picture of it on Flickr!
Kensington Library
Originally posted by andy_sunley
An Unexpected Convergence
Posted 18th July 2008 at 12:04pm by M1ke, tagged as Random, Video | Commenting Closed
I wrote a while ago about the big freeze that happened in Grand Central Sation, New York, the video of which was posted on YouTube. That event was organised by a group called Improve Everywehre, and it turns out they have plenty more to offer. The purpose of the group is to perform random activities, some large scale and some smaller, that go against what people expect, and with the emphasis on the idea that no one involved is in contact with anyone else. For the larger events clever signals are used - in one case a man moving his hands between his chest and a bin some distance from the group, and in another the instructions have been pre-recorded on MP3.
The activity is known as flash mobbing, and has some following in Europe as well as the States. For example some folks in Prague decided to set up a first class set on an underground train - bringing in a rug, chair, table and coatstand one by one before a business man boarded and sat down at the next station. In Manchester a large pillow fight was held. I've picked out some of the best videos to link here - others can be found on the Improve Everywhere website or general searching on video sites.
The first is a large number of people gathered in the windows of a department store in New York.
The second is a small baseball game in America that the Improv guys decided to give the big league treatment - including commentators and a blimp!
This one is the first class tube train from those crazy guys in Prague.
Finally one from the folks back in Manchester - a huge pillow fight in St. Peter's square!
I'd definitely be up for something like this - maybe starting on a smaller scale with more focus, but it seems like amazing fun. I'll keep you posted!
Midnight Snack
Posted 15th July 2008 at 12:09pm by M1ke, tagged as Random | Commenting Closed
A few years ago I was randomly bestowed the title of Doctor Who. It lead to some amusing events at the time, but since then I've seen that its a bizarrely awesome compliment. One of the coolest things about Doctor Who is that despite his being a time lord, amazing space craft and genius - all that stuff - the reason he still enjoys adventuring is because he acts on impulse, random maybe even to him, and does things unexpected by everyone around him. Many events in my life have made me realise the value of this randomness, of doing something that comes to mind despite perception or occasionally reality holding you back. Obviously there are limits, which is also something Doctor Who shows, but these random events have been some of the most enjoyable of my life. Sometimes they're one off and only continue to have their effects in memory; other times they've had more far reaching consequences. So that's the ethos I guess. Live life with that spark of randomness always in mind - by all means do what you need to survive, do good for yourself and others, but don't always do it in the way people expect.
That build up (and something I've intended to put to copy for a while now) serves nicely as a backdrop to last night's activities, which featured a planned pub visit which led onto a late night supermarket visit which neatly led to a 1am barbecue, via a ride on a very bumpy track and a misty journey across some moors. Little more needs to be said, simply because it was all just random.
Lake District Peaks in Google Earth
Posted 8th July 2008 at 8:50am by M1ke, tagged as Google, Places | Commenting Closed
I stumbled upon a handy site last night that contained a KML file (Google Earth's data format) containing 214 Lake District Peaks marked out in Google Earth. Unfortunately the titles and descriptions were the wrong way round for regular browsing, and a number of the titles were spelt incorrectly or wrongly capitalised. Luckily KML files are just a type of XML, so can be opened and edited using Notepad. After a bit of work the file looks much nicer and is far more useful for panning around looking at the peaks.
Download the Lake District Peaks KML file.
Incidentally if you are browsing round the Lake District in Google Earth, make sure to check out the amazing Gigapan layer, which contains brilliant 3d panoramas that can be zoomed in to very high resolutions.